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Continuing with the Tradeshift event in New York last week, let me start Part 2 of this series (Part 1 can be found here) by first discussing CloudScan, a service that Tradeshift created roughly one year ago. CloudScan is a cloud-based invoice conversion service that enables suppliers to submit manual invoices to its client while also serving as an initial step to onboarding a supplier.
How does it work? Quite simple really, suppliers send their invoices (email, PDF, paper) to a unique email address; once received, the invoice goes through a data capture (OCR) process which, like many other capture solutions, is based on learn-by-example techniques based on training samples which consist of a variety of invoice types being processed by a certain buying organization. CloudScan is different from other capture solutions in that the algorithms it uses are continuously learning from the entire Tradeshift network as opposed to the invoices to a single organization.
Another differentiator is that Cloudscan sends the captured data sent back to the supplier for validation before being sent the buyer. So, instead of the traditional method of the buyer having to validate the captured data, the supplier does that work even before the invoice is submitted, which is genius! Furthermore, to validate the data the supplier must logon to the Tradeshift platform. New suppliers must create an account, provide certain company information and as soon as this happens, a subtle onboarding process begins for that supplier. After this, the supplier will begin receiving email communications around the benefits of switching to eInvoicing.
As for the actual process of validation, when the supplier arrives at the screen to validate the captured data, any error or illegible information is pointed out to the right of the screen, with the image of the scanned invoice on the left. Once validated the invoice is submitted. Enterprise users of Tradeshift can go a step further and enforce business rules (for e.g., if the buying organization requires a PO number the invoice will not be submitted without one) at the point when the supplier is either creating an eInvoice or validating a captured invoice. Note – a couple of other providers do have similar capabilities, namely Hubwoo & Ariba.
Tradeshift’s Workflow Capabilities
Tradeshift’s CEO Christian started this session by asking the question,”What’s wrong with workflow? It adds no value to an employee’s job because they are forced to do it”. He explained that in Tradeshift’s view, the typical invoice approval workflow process is very one-sided (i.e., it only occurs within the buying organization) and that suppliers should be included in the workflow process?
With that said, the session continued with a demo of the workflow capabilities that will be available with the new HTML 5 platform. The demo started with a view into a Tradeshift user’s page, which is designed in a similar manner to a Facebook feed. This feed displays a list of all invoices that require the user’s attention and by scrolling over each one the user sees additional details (e.g., due date, or past due by x days, etc). Users can approve the invoice, forward it, comment on it and much more. Any action taken by the user is noted within that specific invoice’s feed, for example, if a user shares the invoice with someone else, it would be noted in the feed. The system can also suggest people that the user may want to forward the invoice to. Additionally, the user can engage the supplier in a discussion which is included in the feed (assuming the supplier is enrolled). Invoices can be shared with users that are not on the Tradeshift network; they can get into the application and view certain information but cannot see any financial data. A lot of the other aspects of the workflow (e.g., GL coding, cost center allocations, etc) can be done within Tradeshift but will depend on the level of integration between the customers ERP system and Tradeshift.
In conclusion, the above demonstrates Tradeshift’s ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking with both CloudScan and the workflow solutions that will be available in a few months with the new release of the Tradeshift platform.
Watch for the last post (Part 3) on the Tradeshift event, which will dig a little deeper into some of the cool stuff such as Tradeshift Discovery and Tradeshift Apps.
